What are the Top Trends for SMBs in 2010?

The editors at Small Business Computing plus a few industry veterans make their predictions for 2010 in the hope that things will be better than they were in 2009. What will be the hot trends this year and how much will the economy recover? Check out the article.

The news in 2009 was dominated by the gloomy economy, as small business entrepreneurs hunkered down to weather the downturn. Looking forward to 2010, it won't rain money, but there are still some glimmers of a recovery. Not surprisingly, the technology trends shaping up center around getting the biggest bang for your IT buck and quantifying the return-on-investment for your marketing dollars.

So-called "cloud computing," where online services take the place of traditional desktop- or server-resident software, was a buzzword in 2009, and the din will only get louder this year.

Even if you've been following cloud computing since it was called SaaS (software-as-a-service) or, showing your age, ASP (application service providers), if you're like most small business owners you still haven't taken the plunge. But according to research by Microsoft and others, that's likely to change.

"We feel interest and adoption of cloud computing among small and midsize businesses will really take off in 2010," says Christoph Wilfert, corporate vice president and general manager for Microsoft's small and mid-market business solutions in the U.S. "Our research and conversations with SMBs show they are very interested in cloud computing, but are not yet fully aware how easy it is to employ the technology, its widespread availability and full benefits."

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